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Guard the Public School! 

Lecture by Prof. MARTIN BUNGE. 



A GREAT DANGER. 

One of the greatest dangers that, at the present time, confront 
the free institutions of our republic is the systematic, persistent under- 
mining of the democratic spirit of our citizens by the fight against 
our free public schools that is carried on cautiously but determinedly 
by the Catholic Hierarchy. 

We do not intend to encroach on anybody's religious opinions. 
But we are aware of the difference of certain fixed ethical views from 
a set of men who under the pretext of teaching morals try to take a 
hold of all temporal institutions for selfish purposes only, who are 
willing to cripple the mind of future generations if they can thereby 
gain absolute control over them and theirs, who feast on ignorance 
and superstition, and therefore tend to uphold the progress of man- 
kind in order that they may the longer rule over weak-minded people. 
Their main aim is to prepossess the minds of the young children; 
their motto: Give me any man till up to his tenth year, then I shall 
not care who teaches him ever afterward, he will be mine. 

I therefore appeal to all upright persons regardless of political 
or religious creed, who love our free institutions, who are working 
for progress, who want more happiness, more purity, more manhood, 
to keep faithful watch over our free public schools. 

A SHORT REVIEW. 

If we look over the history of human progress, over the thousands 
of years during which mankind has developed from low to ever high- 
er stages of civilization, we at once observe that education was the 
most important factor in this evolution of culture. You will further 
see that all education can be divided into two different kinds of de- 
velopment of the human mind, one based on legends, dreams, old 
customs was merely an artificial drilling of the young to willing and 
obedient subjects of kings, aristocrats, plutocrats and priests; the oth- 
er one based on the laws of nature, a developing of an ever higher 
type of men and women by improving and perfecting all the natural 
gifts of body and soul, aiming at the happiness of the individual and 
of society. 

With the primitive man education was natural. It consisted 
merely of some suggestions given by the parent, otherwise it was a 
series of organic changes taking place all the time from infancy to 
maturity, modified more by the natural surroundings than by men. 






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But when education developed it was led astray by certain sets 
of men who, taking advantage of ignorance and fear, systematically 
imposed upon the minds of the young, hypnotizing them into wrong 
conceptions of the universe, of the duties of life, into unnatural active 
and passive correlations with the cosmos. 

Thus in China the final end of all education has been to accustom 
the young to certain manners and conventions which method results 
in an outward conduct without corresponding inner character. Every- 
thing there tends towards conservation of that which is holy from 
mere age. Cruel punishments undermine the self-consciousness and 
dignity. Instead of training the physique the crippling of the girls' 
feet is encouraged, the boys' physical developments lack the system, 
nothing is done to perfect the individual, all to serve the state, which 
is represented by the emperor and the mandarins. 

In India the only aim of education has been to teach the dignity 
and superiority of the priest's class and make the lower classes patient, 
submissive, and satisfied with their lot. Resignation there is the high- 
est virtue. Similar has been the education in Persia, Egypt and most 
of the other ancient and modern states. 

A wonderful instance of exception offers Greece. The Greeks 
had myths and gods, but they had no priest-class. This is the reason 
that they developed to an unparallelled perfection in the short time 
of their independence. They trained body and mind equally, they 
set forth the first system of pedagogy that was based on an intelligent 
conception of natural laws. It is true their education was confined 
only to a few thousands, and contained many narrow views due to 
the small amount of information gathered at that time. But com- 
pared with all other nations, and considering their limits, they have 
given us an example worthy of imitation. 

During all the centuries there have always been reactions against 
the dominant tendencies. Laotze in China, Buddha in India, and 
others. Thousands of men and women in all countries have con- 
stantly, perseverantly and faithfully reacted against the unnatural, 
artificial training of the young for the benefit of the few, and to these 
protesters all progress in civilization is due. But the history has not 
recorded their names, for records were kept for the benefit and under 
control of the ruling class; they have been persecuted, and at the best 
have been forgotten, but a close student of history observes their 
working in the development of culture and from the measures against 
them by the rulers. The parasites of society have managed to keep 
their influence floating on top. They have hailed the discovery of 
every new fact and every new principle, as an attack upon their sys- 
tem, upon church and aristocracy. So, every discoverer of a new 
idea, whether of facts of astronomy, or facts of physics, facts of an- 
atomy and physiology, like the circulation of the blood or the de- 
pendence of soul life on the nerve and brain cells and their substance, 
especially upon the vital processes in certain cells of the cortex and 

D. OF D. 
JUL 26 1913 



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the outer layer of the brain. So have the discoveries in chemistry, 
psychology, biology, geology, or whatever science— as long as it were 
facts instead of old musty dreams— they have been denounced as 
crimes against the dogmas of a priesthood; the discoverers of these 
facts— facts whose knowledge set the world thinking, who revolution- 
ized the minds, therefore the life of the world— have always been 
persecuted as the enemies of the upper class. Many of them have 
been imprisoned and tortured, all of them menaced, some burned at 
the stake. 

DANGEROUS TOLERANCE. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen this is not onlv past history this 
is the record of our present time, these things are going on now,- not 
as openly as before but not less destructively. Our country of the 
brave and the free is the one most haunted by the parasites of society. 
While France, Italy; and even Spain and Portugal, are fast liberating 
themselves of these enemies of the real happiness and purity of so- 
ciety, this common menace for the highest ideals of our fatherland 
grows worse and worse every year. And the only reason for this 
alarming fact is : We have not kept watch over our public schools we 
have been too easy-going, too liberal, too tolerant. I believe in toler- 
ance, but there is a limit ; you do not tolerate in your home the liber- 
tine, the criminal or anybody who endangers the peace and happiness of 
your family, and you should not tolerate the enemy of the free public 
school to become the warden of our free institution. Ideas do not hurt 
as long as they are kept privately. If somebody believes in vegetarian- 
ism, that is his entirely private matter; but if he would make his view a 
pretext for going into your garden and laying hands on your private 
property, appropriating your vegetables, you would fight" his kind of 
vegetarianism as ruinous for your garden; the same would take place 
if he would bring m a law depriving you of the control over your 
garden under the pretext that you were not believing in his species of 
vegetarianism. If a man believes he is the Czar of Russia the thing 
is harmless as long as he keeps this under the q. t., but as soon as 
he tries to force you to do him homage you call the doctor and the 
police. If we notice that a band of Italians believe they are set by some 
Jewish deity Jehovah as the Cardinals and one of them as the Pope 
of the world, with absolute power to rule and lord this round planet 
on the strength of a book that contains childish conceptions of a 
half-civilized people, and that these priests shall have control of the 
education of all the children;— if we notice that the more privileges 
we give to these parasites the bolder they get, the more tolerant we 
are towards the endangerers of the peace and happiness of this nation 
the more intolerant they become towards us, then— I say— then it be- 
hooves us to wake up, to become men, to fight off these enemies of 
our free institutions, and keep a vigilant watch over our public 
schools, the dearest treasure of a civilized nation. 

To show you the objects of the Romans which they will certain- 



— 4 — 

ly accomplish if we let them do so, I shall quote a few sayings of 
Catholic prelates, most of them will have been heard by you before. 
Msg. Capal : "The time is not far away when the Roman Catholic 
Church of the Republic of the U. S. at the order of the Pope will re- 
fuse to pay its school tax, and will send bullets to the breast of gov- 
ernment agents rather than pay it. It will come as quick as the click 
of a trigger, and will be obeyed, of course, as coming from God him- 
self." Pope Pius IX: "Church and State should be united. The 
Roman Catholic religion should be the only religion of the state, and 
all other religions should be excluded by force." Cardinal McClosky : 
"We must take part in the elections, move in a solid mass in every 
state against the party pledged to sustain the integrity of the public 
schools." Father Walker: "I would as soon administer sacrament 
to a dog as to Catholics who send their children to public schools." 
Father Phelan : "I frankly confess that the Catholics stand before the 
country as the enemies of the public schools." Father Schaner : "The 
public schools have so far produced nothing but a godless generation 
of thieves and blackguards." (Now, my friends, you who have at- 
tended public schools, now you know what you are. ) 

Pope Pius IX says : "Education outside the Catholic Church is a 
damnable heresy." The Catholic World writes : "Education must be 
controlled by Catholic authorities, even to war and bloodshed." 

These are words of the Catholics themselves, no Catholic will 
deny that they set forward the spirit that prevails in the church, that 
the archbishop in regular intervals circulates messages and has them 
read from the pulpit condemning the free public school system and 
demanding that all education should be under the control of Rome 
(the place where the band of Italian impostors keeps their headquart- 
ers.) 

WATCH THE GROUND HOG. 

Why should we, the friends of the free public school, indulge in 
indifference while our enemies are working indef atigueably ? Let us 
open the eyes of our neighbors, friends and shop-mates for this pois- 
onous undermining of our free institutions. Call the attention of all 
to the institution of the Catholic Knights of Columbus, backed by the 
Federation of Catholic societies and aided powerfully by the papal 
press. Even in family papers like the Saturday Evening Post, which 
the public looks at as a harmless non-religious paper, we find articles 
inspired by Catholic fanatics. The issue of December 14, 19 12, of 
the above named paper contains an article headed "Expensive Free 
Education," which is written to impress the readers with the thought 
that the free school system is bad. As a model man this article intro- 
duces a laboring man who does not applaud when the commencement 
day orators refer to "Our glorious free-school system." As objection 
to the public school the Saturday Evening Post finally gives "The 
lack of uniformity of text-books." The same Catholic power which 
inspired this article, fought in Missouri, Wisconsin, and other states, 



-5- 

bills that were brought in in favor of free school books and uniform- 
ity of the same. 

The Catholic hierarchy, while they utterly condemn the public 
school system and declare that everyone who sends his children there- 
to commits an unpardonable sin, at the same time seek to have their 
tools elected members of the school board. For what reason? To 
improve or to destroy the public schools? We demand that our 
schools shall be consigned to the care of their friends and not their 
enemies, to the supervision of those who will help them rather than 
to those who would glorify in their destruction!! 

The Catholics are pointing out the defects of the public school 
system not with the object of improving upon them, but to advertise 
their own private schools, taught by half-educated nuns. 

CLERICAL GRAFT. 

In the same degree as the public education gets under control 
of Rome, the Catholic graft increases. Mr. J. Crowley, who — in- 
duced by inherited prejudice, education and early surroundings — be- 
came Catholic priest, but as soon as he, getting on the inside, seeing 
the terrible corruption and graft, tried to reform the church in his 
limits and consequently was driven out of the church, has published 
a book, "Romanism a Menace to the Nation," in which he has given 
out facts about the graft of the priests, who are ex-officio principals 
of the parochial schools. He describes fifty-eight different kinds of 
graft committed on living and dead, showing that the "holy fathers" 
are very resourceful. Among these different kinds the School Book 
Graft, School Funds Graft, are most noteworthy and suggest what 
will be done if these grafting priests who, without doubt, are experts 
in obtaining money under false pretenses and by innumerable nefari- 
ous methods, get more influence over our public school. In Milwau- 
kee, where two years ago the Catholics succeeded in electing several 
members of the school board, Catholic influence attempted deposing 
the much,merited, able and honest Chief Truancy Officer, Hasso Pes- 
talozzi, seemingly without reason. At the hearing before the com- 
mittee Mr. Pestalozzi was charged of bad judgment in making ap- 
pointments. Then it was charged that a Catholic priest had tried to 
induce the chief truancy officer, by threats and bribes, to appoint his 
relative on the staff. The honest refusal to yield under those circum- 
stances seemed to be the reason for the persecution of the able officer 
who, after the facts had been investigated, was honorably cleared. 
The Catholics attempted this while being in a small minority. What 
will they do if they gain more control? They will do on a larger 
scale what they are doing now on a small scale. Already they are 
obtaining public funds for Roman Catholic schools and charitable ( ?) 
institutions. In the near future they intend to compel non-Catholic 
politicians in the municipal, state and federal governments to pass 
laws granting public funds to all said schools and institutions. Will 
honest, courageous citizens of our nation, lovers of our independence 



and freedom, stand by and see it done? Against parasites tolerance 
is a bad policy. Our nation must be cleansed of them. 

RESULTS OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 

Every student of history knows that Spain, Portugal, Mexico, 
Italy, France, or any country where they had full control over the edu- 
cation of the young, are monumental memorials of Catholic education. 
In every one of these countries the intellectual standard has fallen be- 
low any of the neighboring people, and morally the priests' education 
has depraved every nation they laid a hand on. People who, before the 
church entered their borders, marched on top of the nations have been 
entirely ruined intellectually and morally by Catholic education; and 
the statistics of prisons prove the result of this poisonous — because 
insane — system on the minds of the young. Historical and statistical 
facts cannot be denied. Anyone acquainted with children whose 
education has been merely parochial school education knows that these 
children are very inadequately instructed in purely secular knowledge 
and the children of the public school enter upon the duties of life in- 
comparably better informed and trained. The education of Catholic 
children being based on an artificial foundation, instead of a real, 
natural one, must prove an intellectual failure. And what about the 
ethical benefit? The religious training which the children of paro- 
chial schools receive is simply hypocritical, and instead of being the 
foundation of sound morality its logical effect is utter demoralization 
and corruption of the child. The press and reports of prisons reveal 
the gross immorality of priests, who are the principals of the paro- 
chial schools, though ninety-five per cent of crimes of priests are 
hushed up for the honor of the church. But — even aside from that — 
practice and precept do not go together except where precept contains 
more fanatic hatred or mental stupefaction than sound morals. How 
do you like this kind of instruction : "Children, if a priest should tell 
you that your hand is marble, and an angel should tell you your hand 
is flesh, you must believe the priest and disbelieve the angel. " 

Parochial school children have their moral sense blunted by be- 
ing taught that God will eternally damn the Catholic who exposes a 
bad priest. The children see in this instruction a scheme to check sin. 
Nuns tell the children stories of how terrible things had befallen 
Catholics who had talked about bad priests. 

The pernicious influence of church fairs upon school children is 
just now being revealed before the state legislature of Wisconsin, 
which is considering a bill which shall forbid sale of liquors in school 
halls. It is not possible to go into all details of demoralization of 
children through Catholic schools in a small leaflet like this. The 
main reason for the fact that far the greatest number of criminals 
have been educated in parochial schools must be sought in the mis- 
representation of the universe and the laws that guide it. Intellectual 
errors always result in a confusion of mind, and confused minds are 
the easiest victims of criminal temptations. Now, do we want this 



— 7 — 

dangerous influence of the Catholic church on the intellect and morals 
of children extended upon our public school? 

FALSE PATRIOTISM. 

The Catholic danger is not the only danger that confronts the 
education of our young children. In conjunction with the church 
there is going on a propaganda of a false patriotism. We are all in 
favor of a true patriotism, we want our children taught to love and 
respect our country and its people, to love all nature, love our creeks 
and rivers, our hills and forests, our trees and flowers, and especially 
love and respect every man, woman and child. But that is not what 
these false patriots try to inculcate into the hearts of our children; 
they try to implant a passion impregnated with a hatred and con- 
tempt for other nations, a lust of murder, an idolatry of the flag. 
The great Dr. Johnson once said : "The coward hides behind the flag," 
and wherever the flag is destined to blind reason and sentiment of 
due consideration for others into a Jingo-patriotism, into an unreason- 
able devotion to the interest of a small commercial class, there we 
have entered dangerous ground; the history is a monumental re- 
minder of the fact that false pseudo patriotism and religious fanati- 
cism are the two factors that have caused all the misery in the world. 
The boy scout movement is one of the phenomena of this new en- 
deavor to make our schools subservient to class interest. Even our 
nickel shows — if I be permitted this common denomination "of these 
new theaters of the working men and their children, who have no 
money to go to expensive places of amusement — have been made places 
of education on these lines. Every little while we are forced — if we 
do not want to leave the show for which we have paid admission — to 
attend an unnatural scene from Mexico, Spain, Ireland or Italy, 
where a priest is glorified as the rescuer of a girl from vice, a plot 
which generally ends with an advertisement for some Catholic insti- 
tution, like a cloister; or we see soldiers drilled in the art of killing, 
flags are enfolded and in every way the spectator is imposed upon 
with the idea, that to love our land and its people, means to glorify 
in wars and war emblems. 

THE PERNICIOUS UNDERCURRENT. 

Our universities and colleges, in fact all our public places of 
learning, are being terrorized into teaching and misrepresenting facts 
along these tendencies. A few days ago Prof. Duncan of the Chi- 
cago University was roasted in all the pulpits and from all the papers 
for simply stating in a lecture the scientific facts of evolution reject- 
ing the story of the creation as set forth by Genesis. Even State 
Superintendents of Public Instruction have found it useful for their 
political schemes to denounce free public institutions and to advertise 
private sectarian colleges. Our text-books are more misrepresenta- 
tion, and distortion, of facts than statements of them. Take it all in 
all: There is a tendency of systematic poisoning the minds of the 
young for certain selfish purposes that is the greatest menace our 
nation has ever confronted. 



Irl^ARy OF CONGRESS 

• 



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THE OUTLOOK. 

But we are on the eve of an educational awakening. The abso- 
lute necessity of a complete reorganization, reshaping, reconception 
of education and the educational system is pressing upon all who 
think. This awakening is due to the influence of modern science and 
the exigencies of inevitable social change. In this peaceful, but de- 
termined revolution, you and I, every one of us must co-operate. We 
must resist the attempts of Rome and all other influences who en- 
danger our schools. Negligence or indulgence here is destructive. 

Before all we must demand that in our educational system the 
individuality and independence of every child must be guaranteed. 
Nothing should be imposed upon children, but they should be taught 
to think for themself, to rely upon the light of reason, of observation 
and experience, should be taught to use all their senses. They 
should not be made to accept anything, because some great man or 
Hocuspocus has said so, but because they have acknowledged a fact 
after observation and investigation, using their own reason, and not 
the reason of some old dreamer who lived in a half-barbaric age. 
They shall be so educated that they hate cringing, or crawling, or 
bending their foreheads to the earth, that they rather stand fearlessly 
erect and look openly into this vast unwalled temple of the universe, 
star-gemmed and luminous with millions of suns and planets. 

They should be educated to usefulness. Their lives should not 
be wasted in the acquisition of the useless. The only object shall 
be to make them capable of making themselves and others happy. 

In our schools nothing should be taught that the teacher does not 
actually know, and can prove. Beliefs, superstitions, mere theories, 
should not be treated like demonstrated facts. Our text-books must 
be expurgated from all misrepresentations and myths. Truth and 
nothing but truth is the foundation and the superstructure of the 
dome of a higher civilization. Truth gives man the greatest power 
for good. Truth is sword and shield. Truth is the sacred light of 
the soul. 

And now, I fervently appeal to you, fathers and mothers, for 
the sake of your dear children, young men and women for the sake 
of your young brothers and sisters, lovers of mankind for the sake 
of the future of our dear land and its people, I appeal to all who en- 
joy our advanced stage of civilization for the sake of humanity, join 
us to be on the outlook, keep watch over our free public schools!! 

Our schools shall be made the real temples, our teachers the 
true priests, knowledge propagated, superstition ridiculed ! Then our 
life will not have been lived in vain, but we shall be in truth living 
elements of the evolution of mankind towards perfection, we shall 
stand for some good purpose, fight for some sacred cause and will 
prove real, true patriots, the real lovers of our country and its people, 
the builders of a higher civilization. 

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